So I got to bed at Three AM (yeah, late night blogging…I lead such a glamorous life), and got out at Eight. Napping on the subway, my subconscious woke me up at Times Square, and I had to wonder… had I slept through to Monday? No, the crowded Sunday subway train was packed full of people headed to the Javits Center.

So I joined the migration. No trouble getting in today, and no trouble getting around. For some reason, the floor plan of the booths in front of Marvel/Lego/DC created a zone of invisibility. This was a problem, as this is where most of the comics publishers were located. I had visited everything else around them, so I made a deliberate point of visiting each one on Sunday. Somehow, I still managed to overlook Dark Horse, for which I feel horrible.

The Lego mural, at 10:48 AM SundayAs you can see, it is made of 8×8-stud tiles, each stud a single one-stud brick assembled by attendees (I did two on Thursday).On the other side was the Lego store, and more vertical stud walls where attendees could build with bricks. Most produced Lego-graffiti. I went three-dimensional.

I did a quick saunter around the back half of the retailer area, noted the many sold out items at the Doctor Who Store, and then proceeded to Artists Alley for some last day shopping. Colleen Doran sold a page for an obscene amount (for a person of her talent, with the amount of work involved, it should have cost more). Dan Parent was selling pages from his Kevin Keller and Michael Strahan issues for XXX-rated prices ($25 a page!) so I bought two Kellers (Kevin at the London Olympics, Kevin at a surfing contest). Robin Riggs sold a splash page from the Sir Apropos of Nothing graphic novel, which was also signed by his neighbor, some guy named Peter David (or was it David Peters?). And while I was waiting in line to get a plastic sleeve, another customer had a signed Fables poster from Bill Willingham. “Was that given out at the Fables panel?” “No, he’s over at Z1, giving them away for free.” So I clued him into “Proposition Player” then headed over to Willingham’s table, where there was no line but a stack of posters, printed on heavy stock. It’s a nice city scape, a bit strange, but quite nice.

Sorry about the reflection. I had to take this at an angle.

By this point, my day was done, except of the final panel of the convention. I was not in a rush, so I went in search of my scarf, which I lost Friday. The elevator was not working, but show security clued me into the staircase up to the fourth floor. One the way up, Lance Fensterman was on his way down, on his way to the Q&A panel at Four. I had to walk all the way back to the end of the floor, with no luck. But I did get some nice shots from their vantage point of 4A. (It was a nice scarf, but I got two years use out of it, so no loss.)

The Q&A panel, where Lance and his executive committee open themselves to kudos and criticisms. (The particulars will be on a separate post.)

So at Five PM, the show officially closed. Unofficially, it seemed that everyone had stayed to the very end, as the public spaces were well packed as people streamed outward.

5: 14 PM Looking north from the grand staircase on the third floor.

A wider shot, 5:14 PM..

From the side near the Hall 3B (VIP) entrance. 5:15 PM

From the mezzanine, attendees streaming out of 3B, 5:19 PM

The main entrance, looking southeast, from the mezzanine. 5:16 PM

The main entrance, looking north. Occupy Comic Con! 5:21 PM

Like some city streets, the carpet is rolled up at 5 PM. Looking north into Hall 3B at 5:35 PM.

One more view of the concourse, at 5:40 PM.

And at 5:50 PM

And Artists Alley, at 6 PM.

______________________And as the sun sets into the west, we bid a fond farewell to the seventh New York Comic Con. I had a great time, met lots of great people, discovered some new cool stuff, and came away recharged with excitement for comics and popular culture! There’s lots of room for improvement, and the ReedPop! crew never stop striving for the best experience! Next year, the Javits Center will be clear of construction scaffolding, so there will be even more room!

New York has joined San Diego as offering an amazing experience, and there are many regional conventions gaining in popularity across this country. San Diego is an amazing show, but can you imagine five or six of those happening each year in a variety of states?

I’ve been writing for The Beat since July of 2010.
I’ve been reading comics since 1974, collecting since 1984, and spreading the graphic novel gospel since 1994.
I’m a bookseller, a librarian, an amateur scholar, a cool uncle, and a comics evangelist.
Ask me anything!